


The Replacement

by MsJuri



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: F/M, Grief, Post-heroics domestic life, married life Marinette and Adrien, pet death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-20
Updated: 2017-04-20
Packaged: 2018-10-21 10:53:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,725
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10683828
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MsJuri/pseuds/MsJuri
Summary: For Marinette and Adrien, the price of victory over Hawkmoth and safety for Paris was the loss of their Miraculous and Kwami companions.  Though they always have each other, Adrien still feels the absence of his Kwami in his heart and attempts to remedy the pain by adopting a cat.





	The Replacement

"Adrien, you didn't..." Marinette set her purse and bag of groceries down on the island counter in the kitchen. They'd just moved in last week, and now this?

Adrien smiled guiltily at her as he cradled the teensy black kitten. "Just look at him, though." He made the little thing wave a tiny paw. It gave a pathetic mewl of protest at being puppeted in such a way, big green eyes squinching closed. Adrien released its paw and snuggled it against his cheek. "I was thinking I might name him Plagg."

Marinette blinked at him, frozen, heart breaking at the suggestion. "Oh, Adrien..." It had been just a little over a year since they had finally defeated Hawkmoth, and in doing so lost their powers and their Kwami for good. Adrien had not taken it well. He'd been consumed with guilt and regret over all the things he hadn't taken the time to cherish about his magical partner and their time together. He had mourned Plagg's absence daily since, some days more noticeably than others. Today, his grief was showing, but at least there was a smile on his face. The tiny kitten licked his nose and Adrien gave the most joyful little laugh. Oh, she couldn't say no. "You have to clean up after him and all that. And no getting in to my sewing supplies!"

Adrien's face lit up and he rushed forward to place a grateful kiss on his girlfriend's cheek. "I knew you'd love him, too, Mari! You won't regret it! He'll be a little angel, I just know it."

\----

"Get down!" Marinette pointed to the ground, knife in hand as she stared down the smug kitten on the counter. He only licked his chops and stared back at her, gaze diverting away to eyeball the fish she was preparing for dinner. She swore the damn thing was smirking. "Down!"

"Princess?" Adrien called from the hall, responding to her yells. Plagg cast Marinette a parting glance and another kitty smirk as he hopped down and trotted to meet Adrien in the kitchen doorway. "Everything alright?" The cat purred and wove itself affectionately between Adrien's legs.

Marinette frowned, staring down the feline. "Your cat was on the counter again."

"Plagg?" Adrien looked surprised, like he couldn't imagine his precious kitty doing such a thing. The kitten meowed in response to his name and pawed at Adrien's pant leg. Adrien couldn't help but smile, scooping his cherished troublemaker up in his arms. "I bet he's just lonely. Aren't you, Plagg?" The kitten meowed right on cue and leaned up to press his nose against his owner's face with a purr.

"He's after this fish, is what he was doing." Marinette frowned as the culprit was cuddled and adored. That cat knew just how to play Adrien.

"Is someone's bowl empty again?" Adrien cooed at the squirming kitten as he left the kitchen. "Let's go fix that, huh?"

Marinette sighed and stared after. She could hear him pouring affection on the naughty thing the whole way down the hall. She sighed to herself, turning back to the fish and sinking her knife into it's gut extra hard.

\----

"Plagg!!" Marinette's cry echoed down the hall, rocking the very foundation of the house.

Adrien was around the corner in a minute, just as much coming to Plagg's rescue as he was responding to his fiancée's distress. "Buggaboo? What's up?" He stopped short when he entered her sewing room and immediately saw the problem. Marinette had been designing and making her own wedding dress, a project she had dedicated herself to pretty much since Adrien had placed the ring on her finger. The labor of love was nearly finished, mostly assembled and laid out on Marinette's project table for the final touches. Also laid out on the project table, directly on top of the pristine white gown, was Plagg. He'd obviously made himself quite at home, stretched out to his full length on the garment and leaving behind plenty of black fur. "Oh, Plagg..." Adrien's voice held more disappointment than anger.   
Plagg sat up at his name and gave an inquisitive purr.

"Get -off-!" Marinette demanded. Plagg paused to lick himself first, until Marinette lunged at him with fire in her eyes. "Off!!"

Adrien scooped up the cat that came running to him for protection, holding him close as he dared to inch forward and investigate. "Well, it looks like he just laid on it this time. At least he didn't claw it up, like that one dress you made for Fashion Week. Remember?" Adrien laughed softly, but the cheerful sound dried up when Marinette whirled around on him to glare at his cat.

"He's not suppose to be in here!" She stated exasperatedly. No matter how firmly she closed the door when she left, Plagg always seemed to find his way into her creation studio.

Adrien took a step back, shielding Plagg with his body. "I know, M'Lady... I'm honestly not sure how he keeps doing it. He must have figured out how to pull the handle or something. Clever little guy..." He shifted the purring cat in his arms. "It really could've been worse, right? I mean... remember before we got him fixed and you had that purse pattern you'd just drafted and he got in here and--" Adrien stopped short, gulping when he saw the unamused glare of rage building from the memory. He chose to back slowly out the door with his cat in tow instead. "I'll, uh... I'll replace the handle with a knob that locks... I'll do it tomorrow." Her glare shifted from the cat to him. "Or today! You know, I'm not doing anything else, so... so why don't I run out and get that now?" He briskly excused himself down the hallway.

Marinette turned back to survey her dress with a sigh. It really was a better case scenario, she supposed. She stepped to the wall and retrieved the lint roller she hung there for just such incidents and began clean up.

\----

"Hrmmphh!" Marinette was jarred out of a dead sleep by a paw stepping on her face with a surprising amount of weight behind it. How heavy was this cat now?! Adrien -had- to stop feeding him cheese. She sputtered as a furry belly dragged extra slowly across her nose and mouth. "Adrien!"

Her husband stirred beside her, lifting himself blearily out of his own slumber. "Mm? Mari?" He half gasped, half snored as he snorted himself awake. "Is it the baby? Do I need to drive you? Have contractions started? Remember to breathe." He was struggling to lift his head and could only open one eye at a time.

"No..." Marinette shook her head with an amused smile. Silly boy... she had another month to go at least. "It's your cat. He's stepping on me." She shifted down against the pillow with a pout. "I'd just gotten comfortable, too."

Adrien rolled over, reaching out and groping for the cat. "C'mere, Plagg..." He found the furry body and scooped it close under the covers. "He's just checking on you and the baby... He's excited..."

"Could he maybe schedule his excitement for daylight hours?" 

"I'll talk to him about it..."

Marinette rested a hand on her uncomfortably large belly, confined to sleeping on her back for now. She glanced over at Adrien and couldn't help but feel a pang of jealousy to find him spooning with the cat. Well.... it wasn't like he could spoon her right now anyway. Still. She closed her eyes and tried to drift back off to the sound of sickeningly contented purrs.

\----

"Honey, he's doing it again...". Marinette's lips twisted into a disapproving purse as she stared down the chubby black cat. Their youngest girl, Louise, had just recently taken her first steps and was now trying to develop this into the skill of walking. Every time she started toddling toward Mama, Plagg would round up beside her and rub against her, his plump belly knocking her clean over onto her tiny rump. Their older girl, Emma would dissolve into giggles from her spot on the couch, and once she had recovered from her fall, Louise would join in and stand, starting the cycle over again.

"Doing what?" Adrien returned to the living room from changing the memory chip in the camcorder just in time to watch his cat hip check his littlest princess to the floor again. Emma clasped both hands over her grinning mouth and curled her knees to her chest.

"See?" Marinette beaconed to her daughter from her spot on the floor, encouraging her to get up and try again. "Come on, Louise. You can do it!"

"Aww..!" Adrien beamed at the cat and started the recorder anew.

"'Aww'!?" Marinette shot him a bewildered look. "He is literally knocking your baby daughter over, and you say 'aww'?"

"He's not doing it to be mean." Adrien came around to join Emma on the couch, aiming the camera at his youngest girl as she squealed and grabbed at the passing cat's tail, which gave a lazy swish. "He's just trying to show her that he likes her. Besides. Look at her. She's loving it." He lifted an elbow to allow Emma to climb into his lap to watch the camcorder screen with him. He leaned in to place a kiss on the back of her head as she settled in.

Marinette watched the black cat purr as he gave Louise an affectionate head butt, toppling her over on her back once more. Once again, both girls dissolved into giggles, their father joining them this time. She sighed but couldn't help a small smile that crept across her face. "Maybe he could let her make it over to me just once?"

Adrien nodded. "Okay, okay... C'mere, Plagg!"

The cat's head snapped up at his name, though he lingered near his new playmate.

Emma laughed and slapped her hands against her lap. "Plagg! Plagg! Plagg!"

The cat chirrupped and gave a running leap at the pair on the couch, landing all four paws against Emma's chest and knocking her against her father, and him in turn back against the couch.

"Oof!" Adrien gasped to recover the breath that had been knocked out of him. 

Emma squealed with delight, wrapping her arms around the fuzzy monster in her lap. "Plagg, you're heavy!" The cat responded to the criticism by curling up to lay directly on the girl's chest, weighing her down and purring against her.

Marinette shook her head with a smile before returning her attention to the baby wobbling back on her feet in front of her. "Okay, Louise, let's try this again!"

\----

 

"Eee! Plagg! Stop!" Emma squealed, pulling her feet up onto the couch and away from the batting paws.

"'Top, 'top!" Louise echoed and mimicked her sister, swatting a tiny hand at the cat that paced the floor beneath them. Plagg responded with a pathetic yeowl, tail flicking swiftly in agitation.

Adrien peeked around his newspaper to investigate the situation and set it down to intervene. "It's okay, my little ladies... He just wants some help up. See?" Adrien patted the cushion beside him and Plagg hobble-trotted immediately over to him with another woeful meow. "Yes, yes... I've got you." He hoisted up the begging feline and set him gently on the cushion beside him with a pat to his head. Adrien began to return to his paper when Plagg made himself at home across it, stepping firmly on the pages and making them crinkle under his paws as he kneaded against it and placed himself in his owner's lap with a demanding trill. Adrien smiled and obliged his cat, scratching his sides and earning a pleased purr in return. It wasn't long before he had abandoned the idea of taking his paper back up, wrapping his arms around his cat and cuddling him close instead.

Marinette watched quietly from across the room where she carefully hand stitched the final details on one of her latest projects. The cat cast her a pleased gaze, green eyes squinting up and his head tilting back as he purred up a storm. She was much more taken with the smile on her husband's face at the moment. She wasn't entirely sure some of that purring wasn't coming from him.

\----

Marinette fumbled with her keys around an armful of groceries. She still needed to stop by her studio to drop off her second draft designs and grab her fabric samples, and she couldn't forget to pick up the girls from gymnastics. Maybe she could talk Adrien into doing that for her. It would make her day easier. Finally she managed the door open and stepped quickly in to set the bag and her purse on the island counter. "Adrien, honey?" She called for him casually as she began to unpack the paper grocery bag.

There was a long silence that preceded a single strangled cry from the living room. "Marinette!"

She abandoned the groceries in a moment. Adrien never sounded like that. Not ever. She ran from the kitchen to the living room and came to a trembling stop in the doorway.

Adrien sat on the floor beside the couch and Plagg's empty cat bed that stayed underneath the side table. The fuzzy black feline was cradled in his arms, glinting green eyes closed, head hanging back limp. Adrien was all but crumpled over him, shoulders shaking as he tried to hug the lifeless cat even closer. His head lifted slowly when he heard Marinette's shaky breathing, trails left from countless tears etched all across his cheeks with fresh ones cutting their path right behind them. He stared at her with a look that struck her cold; a look of pleading, lost, desperate pain that pierced right through her heart. He opened his mouth to speak, but struggled to make anything coherent come out. "I-I... I just found him, I... M-Marinette, he's... he's..."

Marinette rushed to her husband's side, falling to her knees beside him and throwing her arms around him. "Adrien, I'm so sorry."' She breathed the words against his ear as she did her best to comfort him, but there simply wasn't much that could be done to ease his pain. 

Adrien's head bowed over Plagg and he began to softly sob once more as he stroked and scratched little ears that were quickly growing cold. "I'm sorry, buddy... I'm sorry..." He shook his head, his eyes squeezing shut as he leaned his head down to rest against the peaceful cat's. "I miss you..."

Marinette wasn't entirely sure which Plagg he was speaking to anymore. Her heart was breaking either way. She reached down to stroke the soft fur on Plagg's chest one more time and her lip began to tremble when she felt how still he was. All at once she realized that her own face was wet.

Adrien took a deep breath, determined to pull himself together. With a parting squeeze he gently set Plagg back in his little bed where he had found him. The cat looked almost like he was just sleeping. Adrien managed to hold it together for several seconds at most before his shoulders began to tremble with the effort of keeping tears at bay.

"Adrien..." Marinette pulled his face to her chest and held him, hand rubbing softly at his back. All at once he broke, hands clinging to her shirt as he collapsed into her embrace, crying freely now that his mournful sobs were mostly muffled against her. Marinette felt helpless. Her drafts and samples could wait. And she could probably pull a favor from Alya to pick up the girls. But for right now, even if she felt more powerless than the day Tikki left, Adrien needed her to be right here with him, so she wasn't going anywhere.

\----

"Are you sure this will make Papa feel better?" Emma was on her mother's heels the whole way down the hall. Louise wasn't far behind, her shorter legs forcing her to work a little harder to keep up.

Marinette held a finger to her lips to remind her to keep her voice down. "I'm not sure, but I really hope so."

Adrien hadn't been himself in weeks, pretty much since they had buried Plagg. He had been so much more reserved, quieter than usual and never first to speak. He was doing his best to carry on like normal, but his family could tell the difference. His smiles were convincing but empty, his eyes were missing his usual joyful sparkle. He still hadn't gotten over the loss of Plagg, and Marinette knew that it went much deeper than the shallow grave they had dug in the backyard.

"Mmm! Mmnmm!" Louise reached up with grasping hands, grunting as she did when she was pleading for something she didn't quite have the words for yet.

"Not yet, Louise..." Marinette spoke with patience. "Let's show Papa first." She held her finger up again to remind them both to stay quiet. Softly she knocked on the study door, pushing it open to find Adrien busying himself on the computer. "Hey, honey, are you busy?"

"Not particularly..." Adrien spoke distractedly as he finished reading the article on his screen. "What's up, Bugga... boo..." He froze as he looked up, staring at his wife in the doorway, their two daughters peering from behind her with eager anticipation. "Marinette, you didn't..." The tiny black kitten in her arms gave a pitiful crying meow and began to squirm. Adrien melted.

Marinette shifted the whining kitten around, trying to find a position that would be more agreeable for it. "Well, I... um..." She didn't have to say much more than that. Adrien was across the room in a moment to take the little thing from her.

"Just look at you!" He held the kitten up to admire it, earning another startled mew and four flailing feet. He quickly noticed his girls both inching closer, patiently waiting their turn to play with the newcomer. He pulled over the nearest chair and sat in it, placing the kitten in his lap and welcoming the girls over to pet it.

Marinette watched with clasped hands as her husband and daughters fawned over the tiny cat. She breathed a sigh of relief as she watched Adrien, life returning to his features. "I thought maybe... if you wanted to call him Plagg--"

"Oh, no..." Adrien shook his head, glancing up from scratching tiny ears. "That won't do at all..."

Marinette bit her lip. Maybe she'd jumped the gun on bringing home a kitten. It might still be a little too soon. "It won't...?"

Adrien shook his head. "Of course not. Plagg was Plagg..." He offered her a bittersweet but appreciative smile for the suggestion. "Besides... this is a girl cat."

"It is?!" Marinette blinked. She had been so concerned with making sure the kitten she picked out was all black with green eyes, she hadn't even considered it's gender!

"Yeah..." Adrien laughed, helping guide Louise's hand to pet gently at the new family member. "And she'll need her own name." He glanced between his girls with a fatherly smile. "What should we name this little cutie?"

Emma stroked the cat, leaning against her father's lap as she stared at the small beast in contemplative adoration. She was quiet for a long moment as she seriously considered the question. "... Princess!" She spoke her answer very definitively.

Marinette blinked and turned visibly pink at the proposed name, arms folded as she took a step closer to the bonding group. "I-I don't know, maybe more li--"

"Purr-incess." Adrien corrected matter-of-factly as he scooped up the little kitten and placed her in Emma's arms. He took a moment to make sure she was holding her properly. "Here... why don't you go introduce our new royalty to all the plush subjects of your bedroom. She'll need to select a court."

Emma grinned ear to ear as she cuddled the new cat close and took off down the hall, Louise quick on her heels. "C'mon, Purrincess! You can sleep with me on my pillow!"

Adrien stood and took a few steps closer to Marinette, though he was watching the door their girls had disappeared through, chattering away to the cat. He should check up on them before too long. But first... "Thanks, Buggaboo... You're too sweet." He finally turned his appreciative gaze back to her.

Marinette smiled shyly and suddenly found it hard to look directly into his eyes now that the sunshine had returned to them. "I know this has all been rough on you, and I just thought--"

"I know..." Adrien stepped closer to slip his arms around her waist, pressing a kiss against her forehead. "You're too good to me. This is the sort of thing I married you for."

Marinette chuckled and wrapped her arms around his neck. "I thought it was for all those times I saved your butt."

"Those, too." Adrien nodded in concession. "And the cooking. Don't forget about the cooking." They shared a laugh as Adrien pulled her into a proper kiss. It lingered until Marinette pulled away.

"I thought that I was your only 'Purr-incess'." She gave him a slight pout, though there was a smile behind it.

"About that..." Adrien smirked as he placed a hand at the small of her back and began to guide her out of the study with him to check on the girls and their fuzzy new playmate. "I think you're long overdue for a promotion to 'Queen '."

"I might could find that acceptable." She smiled as she walked with him, glad to see sincerity returning to his smiles. "Queens don't do laundry, you know."

"They don't?" Adrien feigned distress. "Well, that puts a hamper on the situation."

Marinette immediately regretted starting this. "No..."

"There's no easy way to spin it..."

"Stop."

"I've really hung myself out to dry with this one!"

"Adrien!"

"Sorry, Lovebug, it's just a delicates situation."

"I take it back! I take it back!" Marinette pleaded. "I give! I'll be a Queen that does laundry."

"Whew..." Adrien grinned to himself, giving her a squeeze. "That was a clothes call."

Marinette rolled her eyes and groaned, though she honestly couldn't be happier. Adrien was going to be just fine.


End file.
